On one of the smaller islands of the bay, Flemenco, there was an old Spanish fort, which had been long unoccupied—not a very large work, intended to contain a garrison of some thirty or forty men. Just behind the fort was a pretty, cool, clean spring, which at some period long passed had been walled up and covered in for the use of the garrison. The island of Flemenco is at the mouth of the present Canal, and rises some three hundred and forty feet above the surface of the water. It is at present being fortified for the protection of the Canal. The English Consul, when he found he was a leper, determined that he would never return home, bought Flemenco Island, fixed up the old fort comfortably as a residence for himself, and there, with a few faithful attendants, he spent the rest of his life, a voluntary prisoner, and there he died and was buried.
A few hundred yards north of Flemenco was the scene of another naval battle during the revolution of 1903. The Government forces in the state of Panama under General Alban had brought the country into subjection to the federal government of Colombia. The rebels still had a gunboat, manned and equipped, lying at Taboga. General Alban, the governor, seized one of the merchant steamers lying in the harbor at Panama, armed her, put a crew aboard with a considerable number of soldiers, and determined to attack the smaller rebel gunboat.
He sailed down to Flemenco Island, where he anchored for the night. During the night the rebel gunboat came up under the shelter of Flemenco Island. As day broke she steamed out from behind Flemenco; ranged herself along the stern of Governor Alban’s ship where no guns could bear upon her, but where all of her broadsides could bear upon the Government ship, which had no steam up, and which could not, therefore, maneuver.
The rebel commander called upon the brave old Governor to surrender, representing that he was entirely at his mercy, but this the Governor refused to do. The rebel ship then opened fire, and continued to fire without any possibility of injury to herself, until the Government vessel was sunk. The survivors reported that Governor Alban and most of his men were killed by the hostile fire before the ship went down. For many years the masts and upper works of this vessel could be seen at low tide projecting above the water.
CHAPTER XX
QUARANTINE SYSTEM
Panama, from its situation and location, was peculiarly liable to infection from other places in both North and South America. It was the gateway through which a large traffic passed, and through which a continuous stream of travelers had been entering and departing for the previous four hundred years. After we had once freed it from yellow fever, it was very important that we should keep it free, and to do this we had to take such measures as would prevent a person in the early stages of yellow fever coming into Panama, and infecting the mosquitoes there, and thus starting an epidemic.
It was possible, also, for a ship to come into a port with infected mosquitoes aboard. These infected mosquitoes might escape to the shore and in this way start the disease, or they might bite some non-immune visiting the ship, and cause this non-immune to develop yellow fever at his house in from three to six days after he had visited the ship.
To protect ourselves against the introduction of yellow fever in the above ways, quarantine regulations were established. Any ship that had developed a case of yellow fever aboard was considered infected. We knew that if the case were developed aboard, she must have had infected mosquitoes there which had bitten the patient and caused the disease. The ship was, therefore, fumigated in such a way as to kill all mosquitoes. After she had been fumigated, we considered her safe. But though the ship could be rendered safe by the fumigation, some of the passengers or crew might have been bitten by the infected mosquitoes just before the fumigation of the ship, and such person might develop yellow fever during the succeeding six days. We therefore took all the non-immunes to our quarantine station, and kept them for six days. At the end of six days we allowed them to return to the ship. The vessel itself, with all the immunes aboard, was released from quarantine as soon as the fumigation had been completed.
As I have said before, a person who has once had yellow fever is not liable to a second attack. Such person is known as an immune. To prove immunity, a passenger or member of the crew was required to present a written statement from some recognized authority stating that the writer knew that the person under consideration had suffered from an attack of yellow fever.
Wherever yellow fever is endemic, it is a well-recognized fact that the native of the endemic area is not subject to this disease. This is explained on the theory that he had a mild attack in childhood, which, though not recognized, gives him protection in after life. This statement may strike one with surprise at first. We have, however, an exactly similar state of affairs among cattle. The beef native to a Texas fever region does not suffer from the disease, but an animal brought from anywhere outside this region always contracts the disease, and generally dies. The calf of the native cow is believed to have a mild attack which does not make it seriously sick, but protects it from Texas fever all through life. If the calf of the foreign cow is born in the endemic area, it seems to survive just as does the native calf, though the mother may have died of Texas fever.